What is carving?

Question

I'm still a bit confused about carving. What is the difference between carving and sliding turns and how do you carve? Also, how long did it take you to get it?

Answer 1

A carved turn has you riding on your edge for the whole turn. There is no sliding going on at all.  As a result you will be able to ride faster while still under complete control.

Carving requires more skill.  You need to have a more centered balance between your front foot and black foot.  You need to keep your body more over the edge that you are riding.  You also need to be able to get more edge into the snow.  You can't learn it by reading about it...

I didn't start carved turns until after about 4 seasons of snowboarding.  If I took more lessons, and had more time on snow I could have started sooner.

Answer 2

Carving is when your use your edge only to turn.  A sliding turn is when you kind of just push your back foot around and push the snow with your base and your edge.  A carve is when you ride up onto your edge and like some people would say, the tail of your board follows the nose.  It'll trace a line instead of create a flat area.  You'll feel the difference.  It's a lot more edgy and smooth.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=44KenqMrqI8

That's a pretty good description.

It depends on a lot of factors.  I could ride double diamonds doing sliding turns before I learned how to carve.  It was just never that high on my list of things to learn.  I've tried carving on only one edge before and I could do it, but I never tried linking them.  When I did try though, it took me about half an hour to get the basic hang of it.

Just don't give up.

Answer 3

Took me a couple of runs to get the hang of it, after that it was just practice.

Carving is where you keep one edge pointed straight at your destination instead of sliding around with your toes pointing forward on your back heel.

You get going way smoother and faster, and it doesn't wear on your legs as much as staying on your heel edge all the time does.